Film / Genre,9780851707174

Film / Genre

by
ISBN13: 9780851707174
ISBN10: 0851707173
Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 1998-12-22
Publisher(s): British Film Institute
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Summary

This text seeks to revise notions of film genre. It connects the roles played by industry critics and audiences in making and re-making genre. In a critique of major voices in the history of genre theory from Aristotle to Wittgenstein, Altman reveals the conflicting stakes for which the genre game has been played. Recognizing that the very term "genre" has different meaning for different groups, he bases his genre theory on the uneasy competitive yet complimentary relationship among genre users and discusses a range of films from "The Great Train Robbery" to "Star Wars", and from "The Jazz Singer" to "The Player".

Author Biography

Rick Altman is author of Film/Genre.

Table of Contents

Preface vii
What's at stake in the history of literary genre theory?
1(12)
Classical genre theory
1(3)
Neoclassical genre theory
4(1)
Nineteenth-century genre theory
5(2)
Twentieth-century genre theory
7(4)
Ten tendencies of literary genre theory
11(2)
What is generally understood by the notion of film genre?
13(17)
Genre is a useful category, because it bridges multiple concerns
14(1)
Genres are defined by the film industry and recognized by the mass audience
15(1)
Genres have clear, stable identities and borders
16(2)
Individual films belong wholly and permanently to a single genre
18(1)
Genres are transhistorical
19(2)
Genres undergo predictable development
21(1)
Genres are located in a particular topic, structure and corpus
22(2)
Genre films share certain fundamental characteristics
24(2)
Genres have either a ritual or an ideological function
26(2)
Genre critics are distanced from the practice of genre
28(2)
Where do genres come from?
30(19)
The musical
31(3)
The Western
34(4)
The biopic
38(6)
Producers as critics
44(2)
Joel Silver, the `Selznick of schlock'
46(3)
Are genres stable?
49(20)
Adjectives and nouns
50(4)
Genre as process
54(6)
Noir as adjective and noun
60(2)
Genrification as process
62(7)
Are genres subject to redefinition?
69(14)
Post-mortem for a phantom genre
70(2)
Rebirth of a phantom genre
72(5)
Critics as producers
77(1)
Selling The Creature from the Black Lagoon
78(5)
Where are genres located?
83(17)
A multiplicity of locations
84(2)
Genre and nation
86(1)
Genre as textual structure: Semantics and syntax
87(3)
Genre as institution, institution as genre
90(6)
More than just a game?
96(4)
How are genres used?
100(23)
A day at Walt Disney World
101(1)
Majors and independents
102(5)
Hollywood and Washington
107(3)
Genres as good and bad objects
110(1)
Ratings as genre
110(3)
Name-brand marketing strategies
113(2)
Brand-name movies
115(6)
Generic discursivity
121(2)
Why are genres sometimes mixed?
123(21)
Critical investments
123(5)
Studio strategies
128(2)
The genre-mixing game
130(2)
Hollywood cocktail
132(7)
Classical versus postmodern
139(3)
Mixing instructions
142(2)
What role do genres play in the viewing process?
144(22)
The generic crossroads
145(5)
Genre films on television
150(2)
Generic economy
152(4)
The generic community
156(8)
How spectators use genres
164(2)
What communication model is appropriate for genres?
166(13)
The four-hoot call of the barred owl
166(3)
Modelling generic communication
169(4)
Saussure revisited
173(2)
How it works in practice
175(3)
A new communication model
178(1)
Have genres and genre functions changed over time?
179(16)
The neoclassical nature of standard genre theory
180(2)
Audience or `audience'?
182(2)
Genre in the age of remote consumption
184(4)
Pseudo-memorials
188(2)
The passed-along song
190(2)
Sports, stars and advertising
192(1)
Genre in the new millennium
193(2)
What can genres teach us about nations?
195(12)
Hegel's newspaper
196(3)
Regenrifying the national anthem
199(3)
The name of the father
202(1)
Hyphenating the margins
203(2)
Genre/nation
205(2)
Conclusion: A semantic/syntactic/pragmatic approach to genre 207(9)
A semantic/syntactic/pragmatic approach
208(3)
Reception, opposition, poaching
211(2)
Planning and using cities and texts
213(3)
Appendix: `A semantic/syntactic approach to film genre' 216(11)
Bibliography 227(10)
Index 237

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